Self harmers..have you ever (mental health)?!

Self harmers..have you ever (mental health)?

Shown your scars or wounds to the doctor or told them? If so what happened??

Sorry had to write "mental health" in the question as it wasn't allowing me to choose it as a category otherwise.

I told my doctor, but only because he specifically asked if I'd been harming myself (I went to see him because I was very depressed, and as part of his evalutation of that he asked about self harm). He only ever looked at them twice - that first time I told him, and one other appointment. My psychiatrist asked to see them once, and I had to show her.

Basically, they were both fine about it. They're trained to deal with these things, they're not going to freak out about it or lock you up in a padded cell. I was started on antidepressants by my GP, and after a few months when there was no improvement and because he was worried about the self harm, he referred me to a psychiatrist. She's tried to talk to me about why I self harm and come up with ways to stop, to be honest nothing so far has worked, but we've been dealing with a lot of other issues as well, not just the self harm.

If you're self harming and thinking about trying to get some help to stop, then I'd encourage you to talk to your doctor about it. They're not going to get mad with you and they're not going to lock you up, they'll probably just advise some counselling and maybe start some mediction if they feel it is required.